


Gravity

by MyLadyDay



Series: From dust [2]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Badass Ana Amari, Canon Divergence, Deadlock Jesse McCree, Gen, werewolf!McCree
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-27
Updated: 2018-04-27
Packaged: 2019-04-28 18:21:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14455080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MyLadyDay/pseuds/MyLadyDay
Summary: "I know how to shoot!" he shouted, refusing to let her take that from him too."You can always be better," she said, slinging the rifle over her shoulder. "Now get dressed. We have work to do."There were clothes at the foot of his bed, simple and black, and apparently he was meant to put them on."Welcome to Overwatch," Captain Amari said with that sharp smirk he'd seen earlier, then she left the room, letting him stew in her words.





	Gravity

**Author's Note:**

> This was my piece for the amazing Full Moon Fanzine, go check it out if you haven't already!

His hackles were raised the moment he could smell an intruder in their territory. Strangers weren't uncommon, though they mostly wandered in without knowing who the area belonged to. The first whiff of fear didn't take too long to reach Jesse, once they realized where they were.

This one didn't smell of fear.

More followed soon after and it was clear when the rest of the gang noticed them too. There were too many, moving in formation, trying to sneak up on them. Probably would have succeeded too, if they tried this with anyone else. The Deadlock were prepared though. There were enough wolves among them to sniff out the threat.

Jesse felt himself grin, giddy with the prospect of ripping apart some cops maybe? Agents or soldier, maybe, but it didn't matter what they were. He shifted slowly, savoring the transition and the heightening of his senses. He took his time, paying no mind to the others around him, some shifting too, others backing off with an aroma of fear around them.

The intruders didn't know enough to be afraid yet, judging from the scent coming off from their surroundings. Jesse was eager to fix that.

They were closing in, revealing themselves and the sounds of gunfire followed from outside. It sounded like a fight just waiting for him to join in, and he howled in delight, the others joining in as they made it for the door of the warehouse.

But the pain started in his back. There was no time to panic before the others started dropping to the ground next to him, the thuds of their bodies almost inaudible.

Like fire, the pain spread through his back, rendering him useless in the fight before he even got to it. He hadn't been this useless in so long, and the feeling took some getting used to.

But there was no time for getting used to anything. Getting to the warehouse door was more important, even if it killed him. He wouldn't let his family fight alone.

There was fire everywhere, smoke too, and soldiers in blue uniforms capturing any and all incapacitated Deadlock they could find. It was a very recognizable shade of blue, and not just because he'd ripped apart several of those agents they captured a few months ago. The entire gang had been waiting for them to show up since then, to try and tear everything apart.

So far, it looked to Jesse that they were doing a damn good job of it.

The bodies of his fellow Deadlock littered the ground, surrounded by guns and broken crates from their shipments. It didn't look like Overwatch came for their business - they came to eradicate the gang.

From what he saw though, the soldiers in blue weren't the one doing the eradicating. His focus was non existent, since that bullet hit him, but he couldn't miss the wolves, mixed in with the bright blue soldiers. The only ones doing the killing. Swift and vicious, but showing surprisingly plenty of mercy compared to what he would have done in their place.

He was barely moving through the pain, weak and slow, but somehow able to get outside. The fight hadn't left him, but the pain was too harsh, even for him. As was the knowledge that someone followed behind him, aware of exactly what he was and how he could be taken down.

The feeling of silver that had spread through his flesh was unmistakable. He'd only touched it before, and that was bad enough.

His limbs were heavy already, too heavy to move anymore. Too heavy to fight.

The time for attacking was long over though, their numbers no match for Overwatch. Their training too lackluster as well, compared to those soldiers taking them down with ease. He used to have more faith in his own gang, but there was no denying what was happening.

No, this was a time to run and hide and hopefully survive.

Except, he didn't want to run, because he wasn't a damn coward. The silver was dragging him down anyway, gravity finally catching up. No one was paying attention to him, no one approached to finish him off. Like he didn't exist at all, and wasn't that a shitty way to go.

But a shadow fell over him, blocking out his last soak in the desert sun.

"Nām," Jesse thought the shadow said while the light disappeared before his eyes and he let the pain take over.

* * *

Antiseptic was his least favorite smell in the world. A strange thought given the circumstances, but he couldn't shake it. The smell stuck to his tongue, burned his nostrils, made bile rise in his throat. It was so far removed from the desert and the bare rocks and the smell of scorching sand.

He despised the feeling of silver on his skin more though, and there was no mistaking it around his wrists and ankles.

It was enough to alarm him awake. To make him remember the last thing he felt was the burning pain of silver and the crushing loss of his family.

They were a gang, and they were a mismatched bunch of killers and criminals, but they were the only family he'd ever known. The only pack he belonged to, as dysfunctional and abusive as it was.

"I know you're awake, kid."

The wild beeping of a heart monitor betrayed how god damn startled he was. And it only gave him more of a reason to hate the smell of antiseptic, now that he knew for sure it was strong enough to obscure his sense of smell. He missed an entire person standing in the room with him, for crying out loud!

He didn't miss the low chuckle, though.

Finally opening his eyes was a mistake, at least at first. Everything was too bright, artificially bright unlike the sun he was used to, so white and sterile. But the brightness drew his eyes to the man who spoke, dressed in all black, looking like darkness followed him even in a room as bright and white as this.

He wasn't alone, though, and Jesse feared for the first time that the wolf in him was gone. There was no smell to her, to either of them, and he had no idea how to deal with that. Everyone had a smell.

The smell of fear, mostly, when dealing with him.

But that was all gone, went up in flames with the Deadlock. No one would fear him now, with silver restraining him, leaving him at the mercy of whatever those two were.

A moment to take in the tattoo under her eye and the blue of her coat, and Jesse recognized her. Knowing her name didn't make the situation better, and neither did the rifle she was cradling in her arms, in fact it made everything way worse, but at least he wasn't entirely clueless anymore. It made the man in black all the more easy to recognize.

Now all he had to do was cope with the fact that Overwatch captured him, and do his best to keep his heartbeat from showing off his fear.

Admittedly, there were worse things than being captured by Overwatch. Very few worse things, but they still existed. They had to, even if he couldn't remember any of them at the moment.

He still hadn't spoken, though. If Captain Amari and Commander Reyes were annoyed by it, they didn't show it. They didn't show much in the way of emotions, their faces blank, but vaguely menacing. Reyes didn't look like he chuckled only a moment ago.

And Jesse couldn't imagine what his face looked like. He felt bad, to put it so mildly, bad enough that it was hard to hide. There was no way to tell if he was actually succeeding anyway, in hiding the disrepair his whole being had fallen into.

What else would he feel, confined to a hospital bed in an unknown facility in an unknown location, stripped of his heightened senses and anything that separated him from everyone else. Except for the Deadlock tattoo. He could almost feel it still burning his arm, like it always did, in that dull way he'd gotten used to years ago.

"You took a long nap," Reyes said, and Captain Amari snickered next to him.

Jesse said nothing, but Reyes continued talking. He only half listened, not interested in the propaganda and the offer to join them. He wasn't looking to become a hero.

"It's either this or jail," Reyes said, like it was any kind of choice.

Jesse still stubbornly stayed silent, not giving them the satisfaction.

"Don't worry, kid, no way you're becoming a hero anytime soon," Reyes said, with a vicious looking grin, making the heart monitor beep loudly again, before Reyes shrugged and left the room.

Jesse didn't even realize he was talking.

Those were fighting words from Reyes though, a challenge if he ever heard one and Jesse McCree never backed down from a challenge.

Not even when chained to a bed and threatened with a lifetime in prison.

"You look like you could use another nap," Captain Amari said with a sharp smirk, before following Reyes out the door, leaving Jesse to realize just how heavy his eyelids were.

* * *

Captain Amari was alone when he woke up. Sitting in a chair in front of him, still cradling the rifle, looking like she didn't even notice it was there anymore. Her eyes were almost unsettling in the way they focused on him, like he was prey.

Jesse could say a lot of thing about what he'd been and what he was, and even what he could become. But he had never been prey before.

Her smile was almost more unsettling than her gaze, with how genuine it looked. He didn't believe it for a second.

His focus drifted elsewhere, when he realized the heavy feeling of silver was gone. Both from his back, and his wrists and ankles. He couldn't believe they would just let him go like this, so infuriatingly underestimating him if they thought he couldn't bite his way out of there.

"Don't think of escaping," Captain Amari said, calm and collected, like she wasn't moments away from having her throat ripped out. "You won't get far without your wolf."

Her words were grounding. They were a wave of ice cold water splashing in his face, a knife stabbing through his chest. Worst of all, they were true.

There was something in the air, other than antiseptic and panic, something blocking his senses and disrupting his focus, something that almost made him not notice that he couldn't feel that thrum in his chest anymore. The howl in his blood was gone, leaving him only half a man.

There was no 'his wolf'. They were one and the same, one unable to exist without the other. And yet he couldn't feel his other half, the ripple of strength and power under his skin that made him feel invincible. That instilled fear into those who dared see the whole of him.

And it was gone. Just like that, like it was a hat he could lose if he wasn't careful. It shouldn't have been possible, but she wasn't lying, Jesse could confirm it himself.

"Don't panic," she said, knowing full well he was panicking.

He didn't even feel shame about it.

"If you behave, you'll get it back," she continued, ignoring his panic and the beeping of the heart monitor that gave it away. "Until then, I will teach you how to shoot."

She got up then, looking like he was supposed to follow.

"I know how to shoot!" he shouted, refusing to let her take that from him too.

"You can always be better," she said, slinging the rifle over her shoulder. "Now get dressed. We have work to do."

There were clothes at the foot of his bed, simple and black, and apparently he was meant to put them on.

"Welcome to Overwatch," Captain Amari said with that sharp smirk he'd seen earlier, then she left the room, letting him stew in her words.

He could still see her through the frosted glass, standing guard in front of his door, showing him that he would probably never be alone again. And yet, with that empty spot in his chest, he was more alone than ever.


End file.
